I can't speak to other states, but I think here in VA the expectations we have for harvesting deer have become unsustainable. Over the last 20 years, our harvest numbers continued to grow year after year until they peaked a few years ago. Regulations encouraging more female harvest continued to be liberalized. This was intentional to try to keep a growing population in parts of the state in check. Our regulations are quite targeted so each county has an objective to increase, reduce, or stabilize. While overall harvests were rising, the number of license sales were declining. This decline in license sales is mostly a result of demographic changes not dissatisfaction since the number of deer harvest per hunter was significantly increasing. I'm sure there were some dissatisfied hunters in counties with lower populations and an increase objective, and especially hunters on national forest land where habitat management is a significant issue.
Over the last 10 years, coyote populations have been on the increase and we have probably reached the tipping point. It is easy to look back in time but hard to look forward. Will our game department take their foot off the gas for harvesting deer at just the right time? Of course not. There will likely be a fluxuation in population but deer can recover pretty quickly.
I simply don't expect to be able to harvest deer at the same rate over the next 10 years that I was able to over the last 20. It is easy to blame our game department when hunting become more challenging because populations are declining or stable rather than increasing, but when I look at the big picture and consider EHD, CWD, lyme disease, deer vehicle collisions, deer impacts on habitat for other wildlife, etc., I really can't complain.
Thanks,
Jack
